Law School Applications in Downward Spiral

There is increasing evidence that law schools have gamed their placement statistics to hide an imploding legal job market. Meanwhile law school graduates on the hook for huge tuition bills are facing years of "debtor's prison."

LawProf's blog makes for compelling reading and repeated visits. LawProf is also reporting that today 12 law schools have been hit with a class-action lawsuit for misrepresentation.

We do respectfully disagree with one contention on the blog. LawProf and the many active posters vehemently reject the premise that a law degree can open doors to alternative careers.

For what it's worth, a law degree has been extremely helpful to us in the writing/editing field, but admittedly the degree may no longer be a viable credential in today's marketplace.

Unlike a lot of the folks on that blog, we have no regrets about obtaining a J.D. perhaps because we attended law school at night (thanks to employer-provided educational benefits) while working full time and had significantly different expectations than those going full time right out of undergraduate college.

The work/school schedule was a long slog. How did we get through it? During lectures we looked forward to attacking the refrigerator after getting home from class and watching reruns of Tom Baker (shown above) portraying Dr. Who in the British science fiction series.

In 2012, in general based on available data, is a law degree worth pursuing? In a word, no.